Ukrainians are using recordings of cat noises to lure Vladimir Putin’s forces into explosive-rigged traps, a Russian soldier has claimed.
With the grit and ingenuity of the Ukrainian army frequently evidenced in its success in defending against Russia’s vast invading force, it has now been claimed that they are turning to an unusual tactic in appealing to the Russians’ reported fondness for cats.
The tactic has been reported on the frontline of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which has seen some of the war’s most gruelling fighting in recent months as Mr Putin’s forces sought to capture as much territory as possible ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House this week.
According to The Times, Leonid Otdelnov, the commander of a mine-clearing unit told state-owned channel TV Zvezda: “We go in, we hear meowing, let’s say, in the cupboard.
“When you open it, out of compassion, there is a blast, because it has been rigged with explosives.”
Mr Otdelnov did not say whether any Russians had been killed by the traps, and it was not possible to verify his claims.
The Moscow Times reported last year that Russian soldiers had started bringing cats to deal with rodent infestations on the front lines, while the firm Dalia Research claimed in 2017 that Russia was the only country in the world where the majority of people owned a cat.
Analysts have frequently pointed to Ukraine’s imaginative tactics as bolstering its defence against Russia during nearly three years of brutal war.
Writing for Defence News, Philip Wasielewski of the Foreign Policy Institute and former US diplomat William Courtney said last March: “Using unorthodox and imaginative tactics, Ukraine's irregular warriors are notching stunning gains.
“Sea drones sink modern warships in the Black Sea. Aerial drones evade Russia’s best air defenses to strike oil facilities in St Petersburg. Saboteurs blow up trains and paralyse Russia’s longest rail tunnel in the Far East. Officials and turncoats in Russian-occupied areas are routinely assassinated.”
Despite Ukraine’s staunch defence, Russia has gained ground in eastern Ukraine over the past year, albeit at the cost of heavy casualties as it throws waves of soldiers at Ukraine’s defensive lines.
Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed this week that Russian losses now exceed 800,000, with a record 434,000 of Mr Putin’s killed or wounded in 2024.
“This year of combat has cost them more than the previous two years of the war combined,” Mr Syrskyi told Ukrainian TV channel TSN.
